Thursday, June 26, 2014

PI Update: Bridges Over Troubled Waters

The Blog takes to the air with our exclusive SkyCam to give you an incredible overview of what is happening down on Pleasure Island!

Looking down on the former West End Plaza area to see the No. 3 Bridge (upper middle) being filled with debris to become a dam. This keeps water from Village Lake from flowing into the area that was once The Waterfront adjacent Mannequins.

Closeup of the No. 3 Bridge. This bridge was least-known to guests since it was for cast members only as well as for refuse pickup.

There is a small amount of water still in The Waterfront but what was not drained is being covered with sand.

Pleasure Island's No. 2 Bridge is how most patrons arrived and departed. Notice there is now only one train car / ticket booth remaining, Booth No. 3. Booth No. 2 is missing.

Some water does remain between the previously pictured No. 2 Bridge and it's connection back to Village Lake beyond the No. 1 Bridge near T-REX Cafe.

Water remains full at the currently closed No. 4 Bridge.

Back on the ground, the view from the No. 3 Ticket Booth back onto the mostly dry Waterfront.

A knowledgeable source on the Island last night told me that House of Blues will be the only club in Disney Springs once all this is done. Yes, many venues will offer music at night but the only true club will be HOB. Mannequins will be a restaurant. We'll see.

5 comments:

Jeff - Gainesville
said...

Very nice views of the happenings on what is still left of Pleasure Island! What I am confused about is the fact that AC and BET still remain virtually untouched. Seems odd that they would start a major overhaul over top of what is currently being done in front of those buildings. Then, I'm not a construction expert.

Legitimate question. It's hard to say but The Landing is not supposed to be completed until early to mid 2015 so there's still lots of time remaining to gut those buildings and do whatever it is they're going to do. I think much of the Island is likely to open even if those two structures are in renovation status. There will be plenty of other things open.

"Early to mid 2015" is not that far away. The time will fly by quickly. What really gets me, though, is that with so much shopping and dining all over the parks already, they're building more shopping and dining. But there must be more. Disney folks are very creative, so we can only wait patiently and see more of what they have planned for us. But I think it's sadly true that without clubs they will be selling their new development short. Really, how much shopping and dining can people do and still enjoy it? Entertainment is required to be present for the development to become successful. Although, deep down, I think it would be hilariously funny if it fell flat on its face at first. That's what happened at both Disneyland Paris and Disney California Adventure. The Walt Disney Company does not have a track record of success with everything they do. So I would not be surprised to see a few years of adjusting and tweaking. That might allow some clubs and night life to come back later in Disney Springs. But initially I think we may be very disappointed by an over-commercialized shopping and dining behemoth. Let's hope that's not the case.

^FN, so true! I think the idea is to have folks come to the WDW property and not leave. They want to create their own sort of "mini-Orlando" right there on property. Trouble is, not everyone stays on their property and let's face it, Diagon Alley is a huge draw (yes, there is competition in O-Town!). You are correct, next summer is not that far off and we'll just have to wait and see.....

People shopping pretty much dies out after 10pm. If they want people to stick around after that or draw a whole different set of late night patrons, they're going to have to offer late night entertainment.